Re: Does "0" exist for DATE?

[Quoted] In article <54qb7s8o8loguooj4csfsb005sn3nem9jm_at_4ax.com>, tkyte_at_us.oracle.com says...
> A copy of this was sent to Casey Claiborne <mscasey_at_io.com>
> (if that email address didn't require changing)
> On Fri, 7 Jan 2000 06:35:20 -0600, you wrote:
>
> >
> >Hello,
> >
> >Is there a way to initialize DATE with a default? For example, an
> >INTEGER type can be set to 0, so can a FLOAT.
> >
> >For example, suppose I have a field for a Customer called
> >DateOfMarriage. If the customer is not married, this field does not
> >apply. What can I set it to in the database? If I use NULL, then
> >I will have to worry about ISNULL or ISNOTNULL situations.
> >
> >Any help on this issue would be *greatly* appreciated :)
>
> just as you did for the int and float, pick some ARBITRARY value to put the in
> the field (ZERO is some arbitrary number you have decided means "null" in your
> sense -- to others, the presence of a ZERO means something).
>
> I've used a date such as "to_date( '01010001', 'mmddyyyy' )" myself in the past
> -- january 1'st, year 1. You just need to pick a date that cannot in any way
> appear in your data normally...

That's what null is for. In this case a null should work fine because if you are restricting on the field a record with a null should not show up in the result. Received on Mon Jan 10 2000 - 20:01:42 CET